One of the strongest thoughts in that last entry was me "Not wanting to Jinx it".  Well, I did !  I knew things seemed to be going way too smoothly.  My luggage arrived. Connections going great.

I finished that last piece about 9:00pm, Moscow time.  My flight to Makhachkala was scheduled at 10:30 ( along with the entire Iranian delegation ).  We're all lined up at the gate, about 10:20, and boom... flight cancelled.  Apparently there was some kind of devastating fog in Makhachkala.

After falling into another string of luck and some really good people (I'll tell that story when I get some typing time), we ended up in a kind of apartment / hotel / hostel place.  But, I got to sleep for a few hours, lying down.  That part was good.

After some more gate changes and delays, we arrived at the airport, about a half hour out of Makhachkala, at about 1:45pm today.  The referee's clinic started at 2:00.  With the help of the President of the local Federation, who drove like a NASCAR champ, I got to the clinic about 15 minutes late.

OK, here's some data.  There are two pools in the World Cup.   Pool A is numbered:  1. Russia; 2. Kyrgyzstan; 3. Bulgaria; 4. Uzbekistan; 5. Ukraine.  Pool B is numbered:  1. Azerbaijan; 2. Iran; 3. Hungary / Kazakhstan; 4. Cuba; 5. Georgia.

Tomorrow's schedule is on two mats.  Round I: 1v2, 3v4.  Round II: 5v1, 2v3.      Round III: 4v1, 2v5.  Round IV: 3v1; 4v5.  Round V: 2v4, 3v5.

It'll be a very long day and there's already talk of pushing the last round into Sunday morning.  I'll get you results, as I can. 

There's zero internet access at our hotel, so I have to depend on being able to sneak a little time while we're at the venue.  Might be tough, but hey... that's why I make the big bucks.

Ciao